I don't think they will do that
EA may be money hungry but they aren't completely stupid. They would have learnt from simcity
Plus you look at promotions like this. They didn't have to give everyone a free copy of Sims 2 + All expanions (Including stuff) They also have their On the House promotions every month
Plus they didn't get Worst company of the year last year.
Worst company of the year matters as much as the Raspberry Award. It does not matter that much who gets it. It may chase a few people away (the smart ones) but fanboys are there to stay and often times are willing to take all sorts of shit just to play the games.
Conspiracy theory.
Let's take Battlefront for example:
IF it will have a ridiculous DRM system in it I guarantee it will still sell way, way, way better than the average video game regardless. These *******s found out just how much they can get away with by testing out the waters with The Sims 3 with full price game + full price expansions + microtransactions (I mean the extra items) and then the always on DRM from Simcity. They got away with one, but not with the other so now they're finding the middle ground so that they can get the best of both worlds.
And here I end my conspiracy theory.
They are a big company. Money hunger is what they are made of. It's all they want and it's all they will ever want. They only improved their reputation to make more money, not to have people talk nice about them. Talking nice cannot hold a company as big as that together.